The North Korean leadership hopes Moon will break with Tokyo and Washington and join China in pushing for the US and others to engage without preconditions.
Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated dramatically in recent years, and Pyongyang is nearly certain to take whatever positions newly elected President Moon Jae-in may assume toward increased engagement with a good deal of caution. "I remain committed to doing all I can for the settlement of peace on the Korean peninsula".
Mr Moon, 64, said: "I will urgently try to solve the security crisis".
Taking the oath of office in Seoul on Wednesday, Moon said he will further bolster the alliance and "immediately fly to Washington if necessary" for the sake of peace on the Korean Peninsula. He has said he would be prepared to go to Pyongyang "if the conditions are right". "If the conditions shape up, I will go to Pyongyang", Moon said.
Moon, South Korea's first liberal president in nearly a decade, said that he is prepared to meet with US President Donald Trump, China's President Xi JinPing and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as soon as possible to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programme. Moons victory will nearly certainly slam the door shut on any military option against North Korea for the Trump administration. Moon is also widely seen as a South Korean leader who could bring better, less hardline relations with North Korea. The country hosts some 28,000 USA forces.
In one of his first acts as president, Moon spoke by telephone with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lee Sun-jin.
But Park's impeachment a year ago, and its unanimous confirmation by the Constitutional Court in March, created a surge of support for Moon, who has long enjoyed an image as a clean politician. The Wall Street Journal even described Moon as an "advocate for closer ties with North" in its headline covering the election result.
Modi speaks to new South Korean President
Now he returns as head of the organisation under new President Moon Jae-In, who has declared his willingness to engage Pyongyang. Moon was sworn is as South Korea's new President on Wednesday after his victory in Tuesday's presidential election.
Two of the attackers escaped, the rest were killed, and a ring of security around the president got tighter.
Data from an exit poll conducted by South Korea's top three television networks showed that, while Moon won the majority of votes cast by those under the age of 50, rival Hong found strong support from more conservative voters in their 60s and 70s.
"On behalf of the Filipino nation, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte wishes to extend his warm congratulations to Mr. Moon Jae-in on his election as the new President of the Republic of Korea [ROK]", presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement. They are lukewarm about the deployment of the US ABM system in South Korea and they would foster friendly ties with China.
Moon will have a hard diplomatic path to tread in his approach to the North, which dreams of a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States, and has vast artillery forces trained on Seoul. He has a point: Though the system is an important and needed counter to the growing missile threat from Pyongyang, the action looked like an attempt to circumvent Moon's expressed reservations by creating a fait accompli.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in, second left, carries a portrait of former South Korea President Roh Moo-hyun during Roh's funeral near the Roh's house in Gimhae, South Korea.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Mr Moon on his election, saying he would be willing to work with him on a basis of "mutual understanding and mutual respect". After all, it was during the liberal Roh presidency that South Korea concluded the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, allowed for US troops to be redeployed within its borders, and dispatched its own troops to fight alongside the US in Iraq. They believe that maintaining inter-Korean relations will lay the groundwork for reunifying the Peninsula, just as Ostpolitik did in Germany. -South Korea relationship, such as the Gwangju Uprisings, would color his view of the history of this alliance, which has had its fair share of ups and downs, he added that "South Korea was able to build its national security thanks to the U.S".
This is, curiously enough, nearly exactly what U.S. President Donald Trump said recently about the possibility of meeting with Kim Jong-un.
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